Lovejoy gives Ducks options

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Toni Lydman was given a seat for the Ducks' home game Sunday against Colorado and Luca Sbisa was in the Staples Center press box Monday as a healthy scratch for their matchup against the Kings.

The Ducks have seven bona fide NHL defensemen, and that is one too many for the lineup each night. It also means Ben Lovejoy is playing well enough to stay in the rotation.

Lovejoy has certainly impressed Coach Bruce Boudreau since the Ducks acquired him from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 6 in the early part of the club's most recent trip. The cost was a 2014 fifth-round draft pick.

“He's been good,” Boudreau said. “He can skate. He's a right-handed shot that gives you something that we hadn't had before. When you're passing it up the boards to somebody on the right side, you're able to move it (better) as a right-hander than a lefty.

“If you haven't played it, it's difficult sometimes. You're taking the puck on your backhand all the time. It gives us a little bit of help there. But he's been consistent. And he's fit right in well with the guys. I think he's done a real good job.”

Lovejoy has stayed in the lineup even with Cam Fowler back after missing eight games because of a head injury.

He is also logging significantly more playing time than with the Penguins, averaging 18 minutes a night.

In Pittsburgh, Lovejoy was the odd man out on the Penguins' blue-line mix with several promising prospects also knocking on the door. Now with the Ducks, the five-year veteran says, “this has been a blast, just being part of things.”

“I feel like my game is getting better,” he said. “I've been playing more minutes than I've ever played before. I feel like it's really helped me to become comfortable out there. I feel like I'm contributing positively now.”

Lovejoy's signature moment to date came in a recent victory over Columbus in which he stripped winger Derek Dorsett clean of the puck, which led to Bobby Ryan hitting Peter Holland in stride for a breakaway goal.

There have been some recent struggles as the New Hampshire native has been a minus-1 in each of the past three games.

But the main thing Lovejoy concerns himself with is fitting into a reworked defense corps that has largely played well.

“I really didn't want to mess things up,” he said. “The guys in this room have figured out how to win hockey games. I wanted to be an asset and to be a part of that.”

Boudreau didn't want to call Lovejoy an upgrade over Jordan Hendry and Nate Guenin in that seventh defenseman role, but it is clear the Ducks view him as more than an extra body.

“We've liked Jordan Hendry and we really like Nate Guenin,” Boudreau said. “But it's given it us added depth.”

ETEM RECALLED

The Ducks, who have five games in seven days this week, didn't practice Tuesday but recalled winger Emerson Etem from Norfolk of the American Hockey League and sent Holland back to the Admirals. Etem, 20, played in eight games with the Ducks earlier this season and recorded his first and only two points in a 7-4 triumph over the Kings on Feb. 2.

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